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Recovery of Power Equipment After 15 years & Other Headlines

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) at the weekend said it has recovered more than 693 containers of power equipment abandoned at seaports due to tariff challenges.

Usman Mohammed, managing director of TCN, said this in a statement in Lagos. He said some of the containers had been at various ports for about 15 years.

Mohammed said some of the power equipment had been auctioned by the Nigeria Customs Servic e (NCS), but said TCN would go after the auctioneers to recover the containers.

“TCN still has over 200 other containers auctioned by the Customs outside the ports,’’ he said.

“We were able to recover 693 containers as of last week, out of a total of 800 containers that have been in the ports. Some of these containers have been there for 15 years.

“Others have been auctioned and we had to trace the auctioneers to get the containers. The government is supporting us. And with the same way they are supporting us, I know that as government has beamed its searchlight on the distribution companies to solve the problems of power distribution.”

Mohammed said the government was set to solve the problems in the distribution arm of the power sector.

OYE: Firstly, the fact that the Nigerian Customs Commission decided to auction products & equipment that should be used for the Nigerian public is simply gross irresponsibility and then it has taken 15 years for TCN to do something about that and we are expected to tell you Thank You for this initiative?

World Bank plans $4.5bn project funding for Nigeria

The World Bank at the weekend said it was planning to increase its funding to Nigeria by $4.5 billion over the next three years to support projects in the power and health industries and in governance, its Vice President for Africa said.

This is indicative – in the next 18 months or so, we expect to put in place projects for around $2.5 billion,” Hafez Ghanem, said in an interview Thursday in Abuja. “We are thinking about financing more investments in power and the area of social protection.” The bank currently has over 30 projects estimated at $10 billion in Nigeria.

President Muhammadu Buhari in June signed the country’s N9.1 trillion ($25 billion) budget for 2018, the biggest ever, to boost infrastructure investment in the country to support economic recovery. This was as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast Nigeria’s economy will expand 2.1 per cent this year after it contracted in 2016, when prices and output of crude declined. Budget documents forecast a deficit of N2 trillion, more than half of which will be plugged by borrowing.

But ahead of general elections in February next year, experts have called on the President to address leakages in revenue collection, power shortages and fuel subsidies, among other things.